I live in a beautiful rural valley of 700 people in eastern
Idaho and after I came to live here I found out that Utah isn’t
the only place that is fifty percent Mormon..............................As
a compulsively inquisitive geo-political junkie I decided to look through
the Book of Mormon so I could learn a little about the belief of my neighbors.
As with any outsider looking into another’s faith, I found many
outlandish passages that would require faith to swallow, however, this
is a characteristic that all religions share. What I have learned of
my Mormon neighbors in the years since my voyeuristic venture into the
sacred book of the LDS Church is more telling. My anecdotal experiences
have revealed to me that I couldn’t have better neighbors or live
in a finer community....................................................Although
I can’t achieve faith, I admire, and may be envious of those who do.
One of the problems I find in my on going analysis of life and faith
is the paradoxical dichotomy of religion that fosters the Achilles Heel
of human nature, “tribalism.” The tribalism of religion pits one religion
against another, hence 99% of the worlds problems. The tribalism of Evangelicals
is undermining the ability of their conservative brethren, the Mormons,
to carry forward the flag of conservatism and I find this as an affront
to common sense. -----------------------> More

Militant
Islam 101: a history and warning•
In the wake of the Iraq War, there has been much Monday morning quarter
backing by America’s
weak offensive line (liberals) who insist the “War on Terror” is
to be waged only against Osuma bin ladens al Qaeda. This essay is
to make the connection of pan-Islamo
Fascism and its long terrorism history. As the democratic world confronts
al Qeada’s Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Iran’s Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, Hezbollah ‘s Hassan Nasrallah, and their followers,
many among us are trying to understand militant Islam, where it came
from and its aims. The following background material is designed to give
an overview of the phenomenon that has been called "militant Islam," "fundamentalist
Islam," “Islamo Fascism” “Islamism,” or "radical
Islam."

"Allah is our objective. The Prophet
is our leader. Koran is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way
of Allah is our highest hope." - the Muslim Brotherhood

The roots of militant Islam go back to the thirteenth
century-----------------------------> More

Independence
Day reflections and hopes • On
July, 4,1776 our forefathers mustered up the temerity to declare
their freedom from the tyranny of a foreign government. This brazen
act set
forth the foundation to build the freest nation on earth. During
the following 16 years this new country crafted the foundation for
our
nation to succeed. This first contract with America sowed the seeds
for America’s future greatness, but did it also sow the seeds for America’s
future demise as well?

Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) Info Tours • Governor
Frank Murkowski (R) AK should sponsor information trips to Alaska and
ANWR for all influential people involved
with this issue................... It should be mandated by Congress that
all Congressional members must participate in these tours in if they wish
to vote on such important legislation............................Extracting
the oil of ANWR is an unavoidable eventuality. God put that oil there,
and humankind will not allow it to remain there forever.

7-12-2006 • Daryl
L. Hunters Last Column For Planet Jackson Hole • For
the past six months Planet Jackson Hole has provided me the opportunity
to
point out many wrongs, as I perceive them in our dynamic
and rapidly changing area...................I hope that I have
opened a window so our many newcomers can look at some of the endangered,
traditional professions with empathy instead of scorn.................The
flood of us newbie’s who devour the cattle ranches and farms are the
locusts of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

7-5-2006 •
Column about media, freedom of speech and freedom of the press rejected
by Planet Jackson Hole

6-28-2006 • Tort
Reform • America’s
medical industry is in a crisis due to frivolous lawsuits and outrageous
judgments
to
victims. Tort reform is desperately needed...............Wyoming Senator
Mike Enzi, R-WY, on 6-22-2006 called for reforms that will deliver
quick and fair compensation to injured patients, while providing
consistent and reliable results so doctors can eliminate defensive
medicine and learn from medical errors.............Hillary Clinton
and Barak Obama wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine, that
high premiums “are forcing physicians to give up performing certain
high-risk procedures,

6-21-2006 • The
Spotted Owl Canard and Environmentalists • A funny thing
happened here in our Northwestern forest; a giant canard has been shot
out of the
sky. One of the most fought over endangered species in the history
of the West, the Spotted Owl, contrary to popular belief appears to
be the victim of an invasive species from the eastern forest; the culprit,
the Barred Owl.

6-14-2006 • In
Defense of Logging and Loggers • There have been few
characters of American folklore with the stature of Paul Bunyon.......................It
is refreshing to hear that this proud profession is still celebrated
despite its vilification by America’s tree huggers who have turned
a blind eye to their need for timber products.........................When
we choose not to log our forests, by default we are choosing to look
at burnt forests instead.

6-7-2006 • The Public Grazing
Conundrum • The face of the west is changing, what was
once a frontier populated with hard scrabble farmers, loggers, miners,
cowboys
and ranchers has been infiltrated
and is getting gentrified by interlopers from the cities that have a new plan
for their adopted home, part of this plan is to end the grazing of our public
multipurpose lands.

5-31-2006 • About
Memorial Day • Private First Class Jacob Allcott,
21 from Caldwell Idaho, was killed April 22 near Baghdad. On Friday
May 5, I heard on the radio that the following day in order to honor
Pfc. Allcott, that the people of Idaho Falls were going to line the
funeral procession route to the Iona cemetery, I decided to go too
pay my respects to our fallen soldier I did not know.

5-24-2006 • Conservatives
are from Mars Liberals are from Venus • Several
years ago observation provided an epiphany that testosterone may be
a factor of political ideological persuasion; later Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger put forth his oversimplified hyperbolic “girly-men” comment
about the California Legislature apparently coming to a similar hypothesis.

5-17-2006 • The
Wyoming Range: a drilling dilemma • As an outspoken
conservative multiple use advocate some will be surprised that I come
down on the side of
not drilling in the Wyoming Range, but it is not the first time;.......................Driving
through the Hoback Valley I always marvel at the untouched beauty of
its mountains and the timeless
tranquility of its river bottom ranches, the Wyoming range
to the west and the Gros Ventre Range to the east are breathtaking.
Most any place else in the world this awe inspiring spot would
be a tourist attraction but in Western Wyoming with its embarrassment
of natural riches the Hoback Valley is just another pretty
place.

5-10-2006 • Power
of Place, or values? • The
power of place, well we sure have that! The question is what are we going
to do with it? We inarguably live in one of the most beautiful
places in the
world, Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons, our rivers, mountains, wilderness areas
and our plethora of wildlife has presented many paradoxical, insoluble dilemmas....................

5-3-2006 • A
teachable moment • A teachable moment can be characterized
by a current event one experiences or observes that provides an anecdotal
example that can be illustrative by opening a window upon the past,............In
1783 a planned military coup was defused only by the personal intervention
of General George Washington, ............During the Vietnam war the
media’s incessant brow beating verbally emasculated our leaders robbing
them of the tools they needed for bold, decisive leadership to win
the war, In Iraq..............

4-26-2006 • The
Cowboy: an endangered
species • The cowboy is one of America's most cherished
and mythical figures. He symbolizes the mystique of the American west,
a
caricature of frontier
courage, independence, and rugged masculinity. The iconical cowboy brings
to mind, horses, cattle, the howl of a coyote, and wide-open spaces, the
cowboy riding off into the sunset. In the west all these things are still
alive and well but sadly the cowboy may be riding off into the sunset for
good.

4-19-2006 • Illegal
Aliens: Our legislators perplexing paradox • The illegal
immigration debate has brought to the fore some interesting political
dynamics
that beg analysis. The imponderable elephant in the living room of
this debate is the Hispanic voting block..........................Their
convoluting of semantics is nothing but disingenuous subterfuge about
their intent. For the sake of semantic clarity we can call it – lying!
Their covert attempt to pass off a sow’s ear for a silk purse
should not fly.

4-12-2006 • Family
Values - a journey of discovery • Growing up a child
of alcoholics in a single parent home with a mother who sang the praises
of..................Other than that I was the typical 70’s something
counter culture rebel. During the 70’s and 80’s I was libertarian
in many ways..............my opinion of a “Family Values” platform
was: how lame.............Then I became a father.

4-05-2006 • Taliban
in Jackson Hole • After
a commercial rafting trip one day, I asked this gal from Kansas how
she liked her trip. She replied it was fun and it sure is pretty around
here, but the mountains get in the way of the view..................“I
felt I had looked into the face of evil,” Fund wrote after Rahmatullah
defended the Taliban’s treatment of women and said he hadn’t seen any
evidence that their “guest” Osama bin Laden was a terrorist.

3-29-2006 • Conservative
Populism • - pop·u·lism -
1 -
A political philosophy supporting the rights and power of the people
in their struggle
against the privileged elite.........- e·lit·ism
or é·lit·ism - 1 - The sense of entitlement
enjoyed by such a group or class. - b. - Control, rule, or domination
by such a group or class. ................Liberals bandy about the
word populism
in a proprietary
manner as if their social advocacy made them the de facto “peoples
party”. I don’t think that they are correct.

3-22-2006 •
The New Paganism • There is a new Paganism taking
root around the world and it manifests itself as environmentalism or
more explicitly, Pantheism,
a doctrine
identifying the Deity with the universe and its phenomena, Fundamentalist
Environmentalism, if you will..........Making a reasoned argument to
a Fundamentalist Environmentalist to harvest any of earth’s recourses
is akin to asking a Christian to give up Jesus.

3-08-2006 • Xenophobic
paranoia or teapot tempest •In the
uneasy climate after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Bush administration’s
hasty decision to allow Dubai Ports World to purchase of operations
of six U.S.
ports is incomprehensible to most Americans...........It is regrettable that
the administration didn't factor perception by the American people
into their analysis. ..........

3-01-2006 •
Media should ignore ‘work
product’ • Two bills being considered
by the Wyoming Legislature that would prevent public access
to government
e-mail........What a nit picking world we have created where
we feel the need to read the mail of others,.....

2-22-2006 •
A Cellulosic Ethanol plant may be coming to Idaho Falls • According the
the Ottawa Sun, Iogen an Ottawa biotech firm who specializes in Cellulosic
Ethanol is hoping to build a $350-million factory in Canada
or
Idaho Falls,......Supporters of alternative energy sources say that thanks
to biotech breakthroughs, we may soon be able to produce ethanol easily
and inexpensively.....

2-15-2006 • Let Natives
have a PC bison hunt • Montana, Gov. Brian Schweitzer's office is planning
on changing how bison that wander out of Yellowstone are managed. In recent
weeks........... Imagine, the Griswold’s family vacation to Yellowstone
while watching for moose, elk, and grizzly bear they happen upon a real
live native American bison hunt,

2-08-2006 • Freudenthal
- Alito - Bush
- in the news • Gov. Dave Freudenthal’s
recent trip to Iraq included meetings with Wyoming troops, Gen. George
Casey and Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad. The following are some of the
statements he made while there........Justice Alito has emerged
unscathed at the end of the gauntlet hosted by the Senate Democrats much
to the chagrin
of America’s liberals ......President Bush in his state of the union speech
said a couple of important things that need to be driven home: “I have
authorized a terrorist ........

2-01-2006 •
Greater Yellowstone; A Grizzly Home • About
10 years ago a grizzly sow and her three cubs were seen by Paul Bruin
as he was fishing the Snake just above Deadman's Bar in Grand Teton National
Park. The following day these bears were tranquilized on South Park Loop
at the Bob Lucas’s Ranch. She either skirted Jackson or walked straight
down the river through the property of many unsuspecting homeowner........

1-25-2006 • Ethanol
- now is a good time • Ethanol is a commercially proven
renewable bio-fuel which is used as an additive to gasoline, either
as an oxygenate additive as
mandated by federal or state "clean air" programs, or as an octane enhancer
or gasoline substitute. It is refreshing to know that fuel choice is on
the horizon and it is in our grasp to write an obituary for foreign oil.....

1-18-2006 •
High Mountain Heli-skiing under attack again! • Jon
Shick of High Mountain Heli-skiing, the 12 good paying jobs that he
provides and
the $870,000 that 1, 200 heli-skier days would bring into our community
are under attack again.......Once again I would like to thank the
environmentalist community for marginalizing themselves by putting forth
another imbecile's
argument to further their anti multiple use agenda on our forests. Their
red hearing about heli-ski operators scarring and stressing the wildlife
living in snow deep enough that powder hounds pay $725.00 a day to ski it
is amusing.

1-11-2006 •
The Elk Feed Ground Conundrum • Wyoming's
elk feed grounds are coming under increasing scrutiny because the feed
grounds crowd elk into unnaturally small areas which foster conditions
that are conducive to the transmission of disease, this is why brucellosis
is so common on feed grounds and game farms, and it is only a matter
of time.........

1-04-2006 • Freudenthal
Second Strike Legislation • Governor
Freudenthal has proposed legislation that will require sex offenders
who target children to get life in prison with no parole upon their
second conviction. But predictably Casper criminal defense
attorney Mike Krampner in defense of his customer base......

12-21-2005 • Christmas
Present • Growing up as a child in America, as all children,
I loved the Christmas season,
the Christmas tree, lights, lawn decorations, candy, mistletoe, cookies,
Santa Claus, elves, reindeer and most of all presents, it was a magical
time of year. It sure was a surprise at age 12 when I found out
that........

Children of multi-generation natives of Jackson Hole are
moving elsewhere to find opportunity and where they can afford to buy a
home. It puzzles me why community planners of pretty places such as Jackson
exclude it's native population in their comprehensive plans favoring wealthy
immigrants instead.

France Germany and Russia have revealed themselves as
untrustworthy participants in the discussion of world discourse as
they are more interested in protecting their illegal business dealings
with sanctioned nations than altruistic guidance of world affairs.
Some say America's proactive war on terror is the real offender of
ethics. The UN has revealed itself as a coagulation of nations with
such divergent interests that cohesion of purpose has proven impossible.
There are none blinder than those who will not see. Some in America
wishing for magnanimous UN consensus refused to see these conflicts
of interest.

The streams and rivers that support and protect Idaho’s
precious natural resources face a new threat. It has recently come to my
attention that the economic setbacks in state government have taken a serious
toll in the protection of our precious streams and rivers.